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Karos
__FORCETOC____NOEDITSECTION____NOWYSIWYG__ , }} |birth= , }} |death= Physical death: , }} Transcendence: c. }} |species= - }} |gender= |height=1.87 |mass=85 s |hair= |eyes= |skin= |cyber= }} |weapons= * Nwulkaar }} * Crown of Karos * Kaniset Holocron * Dakhan's signet ring |allegiance= |branch= |service= |rank=Sâdris |unit= |commands= |awards= |era= * * * * * * |affiliation= Pre-mortem * * Priests of Typhojem * s * * * Tsistaralkut * Post-mortem * Order of Karos * * * * * * * * * * * |masters= * * * * * Assorted s |apprentices= * * Order of Karos * Neema Sunrider * * Assorted s |spouse=}} translation of an extract from the Qâzoikut Qyâsikanjat}} Karos ( )—sometimes referenced using a as Karos Kânisûtanjat (meaning "Karos from " in the ) and variously known by the s, s, and s as Tsistaral (meaning "Sith Protector"), Dwomûshhoyakut (meaning "summoner of the dead"), and Woqoritwai (meaning "Deathless One")—was a - of the active during the . A noted of and of the on , Karos was best remembered for assembling the Tsistaralkut during the and sacrificially giving his life to buy time for a to escape the Republic's . Karos was widely regarded as one of the foremost scholars of and most prolific academics of the post- period. He was best known for his articulation and codification of the Dzwolutwokun , a offshoot that stated that and alignment were characteristics of Force users rather than the Force itself. He was also notable for the Qotaral, a divisive work of that was critical of the that characterized prevailing Tsisajak (" ") and instead sought to propose a alternative form of government for the Sith Empire. Though his writings won him few friends in the reigning establishment during his lifetime, the Qâzoikut Qyâsikanjat enjoyed a cult following among the membership of the Order of Karos, a society of formed in the centuries after his death. Though his early Force-based academic work focused exclusively on the traditional Kissai study of , his subsequent work was significantly wider-ranging in scope, encompassing the study of arcane rituals of both the and of the Force and fields as diverse as and . In addition to his own body of work, which constituted a library's worth of tomes and treatises, he coauthored a significant number of seminal academic texts in collaboration with theorists from other Forceful traditions. For his talents as a and philosopher, he eventually merited a posting as the overseeing of the , a city-sized on widely acknowledged as the largest repository of Sith lore and in the Empire. Apart from his prodigious academic career, Karos was perhaps best remembered for his participation in the and for his actions during the subsequent , a counter-invasion of the Sith Worlds aimed at the systematic extermination of the Sith species. In an effort to assist in the evacuation of Sith refugees from the Stygian Caldera, Karos organized a called the Tsistaralkut. The self-sacrificial actions of Karos and the Tsistaralkut managed to buy time for many Sith to flee to worlds like , , , , and , in effect giving rise to notable Sith organizations and states like the and . Karos met his end following the departure of the from Korriban in , remaining behind with the Tsistaralkut remnant on the planet surface to buy time for the fleet to escape the Republic. Though he was finally cut down by the Jedi after several days of hard fighting in the , he continued to manifest as a powerful for millennia, protecting the Sith-blooded remnant on Korriban by means of the incantation and legions of . Though he primarily resided within the confines of his holocron, he occasionally applied his mastery of to the of host bodies, shuttling his consciousness through a series of unwitting temporary vessels whenever the mood to wander and study with other Forceful traditions took hold. Biography Early life Heritage A contemporary of and , the - known as Karos was born in the city of on sometime after the death of and prior to the between and in . Despite being a member of the with traces of ancestry, Karos was primarily of blood. He was mainly descended from the refugees of who had wandered into the in the aftermath of the and subsequently interbred with their Sith masters over centuries. Additionally, like many of his Sith-blooded contemporaries, Karos was a descendant of those Human who had chosen to mate with the Sith in the years following the formation of the in . Karos himself could claim particular descent from the and his alleged . As a result of this high percentage Human ancestry, Karos manifested predominantly Human physical features. Though he exhibited the Sith species' trademark florid complexion, crimson eyes, high cheekbones, and superficial eye stalks, Karos possessed certain features like five-fingered hands and a distinctly Human nose that betrayed his Human ancestry. Like most members of the Sith species, he also possessed a strong and a natural affinity for the , though his high Human blood ensured that he was at minimal risk of manifesting many of the dark-sided ailments that traditionally affected the Sith, such as bloodlust. Early studies Karos was raised by the Kissai priesthood of the Temple of Typhojem, a located in downtown Kaniset and a notable pilgrimage site for perambulating s drawn from the across the . As a member of the Kissai priest caste born on the homeworld of the Sith species, Karos was immersed in that caste's traditional study of from an early age. Possessed of an above-average connection to coupled with an inexorable thirst for knowledge, Karos spent much of his youth in concerted study of arcane Force rituals at the Temple, entering into the priesthood upon coming of age. He readily distinguished himself from his peers through his aptitude for such advanced rituals as and that allowed him to summon the s of undead s and bind them to his will. Not content to remain in isolation for long among the priests of , Karos eventually traversed the red wastes of Korriban to take up residence in a multiplicity of s scattered across the planet. His travels took him from his hometown of Kaniset to the distant Korribanian cities of and and saw him wander locations as remote as the and the in his search for obscure knowledge and philosophical enlightenment. Never content to remain in one place for too long, he eschewed participation in the power games of his peers in favor of apprenticeship to masters of many Sith traditions and the acquisition of s of great power. In time, his eyes turned upwards from the dusty trails of Korriban to the stars. Despite its hallowed status as the birthplace of the Sith and the mausoleum of the , Korriban had long since been replaced by as the capital world of the Empire and haunt of the most powerful Sith Lords. While Ziost boasted a sizable population of Force scholars of many different traditions and schools of thought, Korriban was home to a significantly smaller population, and it was not long before Karos began pondering the possibility of studying abroad in the greater Sith Empire. Grand Tour Study in the Stygian Caldera Eventually, Karos's desire to learn more about the mysteries of the Force compelled him to depart his homeworld to tour the greater Sith Empire and study at the feet of noted scholars and academics of the Force. His wanderings took him across the breadth of the Empire and saw him apprentice himself to s of a hundred different factions and levels of influence. Karos's prodigious talent as a Sith sorcerer, lack of personal ambition, and indifference to the power games of the Sith readily ingratiated him into the ranks and good graces of many high-ranking Sith Lords of the Empire, granting him easy access to many highly-placed and influential individuals in the Imperial hierarchy. Though never a power player in his own right, Karos saw frequent employment as a and right-hand man to members of the Sith nobility, leveraging his unbiased counsel and potent Force abilities in exchange for the knowledge and instruction in arcane Force techniques. Apprenticeship to Vitiate Though his travels took him across Sith space, Karos remained the longest in the court of , the recently appointed of and an academic widely respected for his prodigious Force ability. Early in his reign as Nathema's presiding Sith Lord, the young Vitiate welcomed the multitude of Sith learners who flocked to study at his feet, teaching them to harness the power of the dark side in the pursuit of difficult rituals of Sith magic. Karos sought particular instruction in the power, a difficult ritual in which Vitiate specialized that permitted the of multiple proxy vessels as a means of achieving functional . This knowledge came in handy for Karos in the years that followed, ultimately permitting him to take full advantage of such rituals as in the creation and control of vast armies of reanimated s. Study of the Sith lightsaber In addition to his pursuit of Force-based academic scholarship, Karos also pursued a number of more tangible Force-mediated fields of study during his time abroad, including swordsmanship, conventional military strategy, and espionage. To this end, he frequently apprenticed himself to noted warriors and weapon specialists of the main Sith traditions. Foremost among these was the Sith academic , a warrior-scholar who awoke in Karos an interest in the . Though the Tapani slaves of the Sith Lords had long since improved upon and perfected the design initially brought to the Sith Worlds by the , use of the modern was still uncommon due to prevailing preference for the . Those few Sith who carried lightsabers were generally treated warily and assumed to be masters of arcane swordsmanship techniques unknown to most conventional duelists. The only known Dark Lord to forgo use of the Sith sword in favor of the lightsaber was the ancient Jen'ari , a duelist of unparalleled ability unmatched by the greatest s and s of later millennia. Inspired by tales of Hord's expert swordsmanship, Karos took to studying the Dark Lord's preserved teachings on the subject of in detail, eventually crafting a personal Sith lightsaber of his own design and construction under Komok-Da's expert eye. Karos named this weapon Nwulkaar—a Basicization of the compound word nwûlkaar meaning "peacekeeper"—after discovering that displaying the weapon publicly warded off potential enemies due to widespread wariness for lightsaber wielders. During the , Karos pursued additional instruction in lightsaber combat from fallen and fellow supporter . Though development of the of conventional lightsaber combat was still in its infancy, many protosaber-wielding were trained in the basics of , a widespread dueling paradigm that came to be known as Form I in later centuries. At Karos's request, Rrogon instructed the Sith in the specifics of the form. Though simple and inelegant in comparison to the more evolved forms that followed it, Shii-Cho was nonetheless a brutally efficient approach to lightsaber combat. Karos found that its distinct fluidity and unpredictability complemented the raw power embraced by the Tulak Hord form. The simultaneous embrace of both techniques allowed the user to gracefully execute powerful, unpredictable attacks while remaining fully in control of the duel's momentum. Tenure on Thule Over time, Karos's desire for greater knowledge led him to venture outside the traditional boundaries of the Empire to more distant, far-flung Sith colonies lying outside the shroud of the . Karos spent a significant amount of time on the outlying Sith world of , a dark-sided lying immediately outside the vicinity of the Stygian Caldera to the galactic west. This perpetually overcast planet was the haunt of a number of furtive groups during the Golden Age of the Sith and served as the principle training grounds for Sith special forces culled from across the Empire. Over the period of a decade, Karos pursued instruction in the clandestine arts of espionage, sabotage, and assassination, aided and abetted by his burgeoning knowledge of abilities as diverse as , , and . Time on Tund Karos eventually departed Thule for worlds farther afield, most notably . One of the furthest worlds from the beating heart of the Empire, Tund was a verdant Force nexus lost on the north-eastern borders of the in the . Though initially settled by outcast who had interpreted the death of in the as a sign to reject the dark side, Tund had eventually come to serve as the penal colony of the Empire in the millennia since the latter's founding in . Its residents were heretical thinkers and theorists of many traditions, from proponents of as applied to the to who refused to embrace the dark-sided mores of prevailing Sith culture. Karos mingled among members of these varied factions for many years, studying unconventional theories of the Force and penning dissertations on arcane Force rituals practiced by the Tundans that eventually came to constitute a sizable portion of his Qâzoikut Qyâsikanjat . Veeshas Tuwan residency Research fellowship Sometime after leaving Tund, Karos journeyed to the distant worlds of and , Sith colonies located in close proximity to the . Though Ambria was sparsely populated, Arkania was famously home to the , a city-sized library-temple containing a vast repository of Sith teachings, writings, and artifacts gathered over a span of millennia. Accepting a at the institution, Karos remained in residence among countless other Sith sorcerers for many decades, often ending up lost in ceaseless study within the labyrinthine structure for months at a time before finally emerging from its depths. It was within the Veeshas Tuwan's walls that Karos came to master a great many difficult rituals of , including , , and . Arkania proved to be an ideal adopted homeworld for Karos—far removed from the tedious power games of the prevailing Sith establishment, the world was mostly populated by similarly minded academics and scholars with whom Karos frequently entered into deep philosophical discourse and concerted study of Force rituals. He remained in residence at the Veeshas Tuwan for the remainder of his life, only departing Arkania to convene with heretical thinkers and academic colleagues on Tund, revisit his hometown of Kaniset on Korriban, or represent the interests of the Veeshas Tuwan abroad on trips to the Stygian Caldera. Drafting the ''Dzwolutwokun'' In the quiet solitude of the Veeshas Tuwan's and s, Karos had much time to reflect back upon all he had seen in his extensive perambulations across the Empire. Particularly inspired by his tenure among the free-thinking population of Tund, his musings on Force-based philosophy took increasingly more concrete form as he began analyzing perceived flaws with prevailing conceptions of the Force as codified in conventional Tsisajak (" "). Unlike most Sith, Karos forsook the traditional conception of Qyâsik (" ") as a binary entity of cleanly demarcated and , a view commonly taught by the and inadvertently disseminated to the Sith people by the at the founding of the Sith Empire. Instead, inspired the teachings of the that he had encountered among the Sith outcasts of Tund, Karos outlined a monist theory of the Force that came to be known by the compound word Dzwolutwokun, meaning "the act of existing as one." Unlike some proponents of the Unifying Force paradigm, however, Karos did not go so far as to outright deny the existence of the light and dark sides. Instead, he claimed that the Force alignment spectrum was a characteristic of Force users rather than the Force itself. Applying the analogy of the to this theory, Karos likened the Force to a lightsaber's used to amplify the output and unique properties of the weapon's in the production of a blade. In a similar fashion, the Force was a means by which the fundamental character and moral fabric of its wielders was augmented, amplified, and revealed. Those of a traditional "light-sided" bent were empowered by the Force to aid and heal others at the expense of the self, while "dark-siders" were granted easy access to powers permitting self-aggrandizement at the expense of others. Nascent necromancer Karos's personal study of , a niche field of in which he came to specialize, began in the sanctum of the Veeshas Tuwan with a casual perusal of , an account of the earliest days on Korriban. Nestled among discussions of ancient Sith artifacts and observations regarding the unique cultural mores of the Sith people, Syn included copies of Sith language incantations related to such obscure spells as Dwomutsiqsa, Sutta Chwituskak, and Qâzoi Kyantuska. Among these, Karos found a copy of the incantation. This obscure and complex spell was capable of reanimating corpses into hoyakut, a word meaning "the dead" made in reference to the hordes of mindless s that protected Sith sacred sites like the and the Valley of the Dark Lords. In the process of exploring the applications, uses, and limits of this incantation, Karos inadvertently discovered a means of controlling significantly larger armies of Korriban zombies than traditionally possible. Through the application of the Transfer Essence power taught to him years prior by Lord Vitiate, Karos found that he could split his consciousness and imbue his Force essence into the reanimated corpses raised by his initial invocation, recasting Tsaiwinokka Hoyakut from within these hosts in a compounding fashion. Using this method, Karos was able to oversee and control vast legions of self-reanimating Korriban zombies, a feat which earned him both the dwomûshhoyakut meaning "summoner of the dead" and the respect of the Veeshas Tuwan faculty and student body. Climb to curator Despite his divisive and often controversial philosophical writings, Karos was nonetheless respected for his prodigious skill in Sith sorcery and the length and sheer productivity of his residency at the Veeshas Tuwan. As one of the longest serving and most productive members of the library-temple's research base, he was widely considered the top prospect for the position of chief archivist and of the library-temple, charged with maintaining and expanding upon the repository's vast collection of artifacts and tomes. With the death of the previous curator during the latter period of the Golden Age of the Sith, Karos ascended to the post, holding this station until the destruction of the library-temple by the in . Under his supervision, the library-temple's collection of Sith artifacts and writings reached its greatest extent, serviced by an expanded staff of perambulating who scoured the Empire in search of ancient artifacts for preservation and display in the archives. The fractured empire Rise of Sadow Born and raised in the eveningtime of the Sith Empire, Karos lived in an era characterized by decadence, stagnation, and the looming fear of discovery by the and the . During trips abroad as representative of the Veeshas Tuwan, Karos had become intimately familiar with the rising tide of imperialism and expansionism that had taken hold in the more liberal corners of the Sith establishment during the latter part of the Golden Age. Personified in the figure of , Sith Lord of the sacred world of and a rising star among the more liberal Human-blooded Sith, this political movement had become increasingly dissatisfied with the isolationist rule of the Jen'ari , whose they disparaged as an era of complacency, stagnation, and excess. During the last years of Ragnos's reign as Dark Lord, Naga Sadow, buoyed up by his burgeoning powerbase, became increasingly vocal in his criticisms of the Sith status quo and his interest in expanding the Empire's borders through conquest and war. The conservative establishment, led by their own star in the person of , were fearful of losing the throne to the liberal expansionists, a group whose imperialist ambitions they viewed as dangerously overreaching and whose mixed-species and mixed-culture memberbase they viewed as an abomination. The last years of Ragnos's reign as Dark Lord were marked by public contention between the followers of Sadow and Kressh, with conflict raging from the inner chambers of the down to the streets of Ziost. Quoth the ''Qotaral'' It was during this period of contention and upheaval that Karos's own thoughts on began to take on more concrete form. Like Sadow, Karos believed that the Sith Empire in its present form was ill-prepared to combat the looming specter of discovery and invasion by the Jedi and the Republic. In particular, he considered the shroud of isolation in which the Empire had wrapped itself since its founding to be the root cause of its own internal decay. Faced with no immediate threats to its regional hegemony and entrenched in solitude far from the greater , the Sith Empire had turned inward over the span of centuries and begun devouring itself. In the absence of external threats against which to rally together in opposition, the Empire's governing Sith Lords had instead turned on each other, engaging in petty squabbles for meager scraps of power that fractured the Empire into a multitude of disparate factions and parties. Though he agreed to some extent with Sadow's plan to reunite the Empire under the banner of renewed conquest, Karos believed this would amount to little more than a temporary solution to a longstanding problem. In his estimation, the Sith Empire's entire system of government was fundamentally flawed. Karos outlined a renewed political ideology based on and in his seminal work of political philosophy, the Qotaral or "Way of the Protector." In Karos's ideal Empire, both the weak and the strong played different but equally important roles in the drama of state—the duty of the weak was to serve the strong, while the duty of the strong was to protect the weak. Contrary to the codified in the that characterized prevailing Sith culture, the Qotaral instead taught that the collective good of the state was of greater importance than the good of the individual. , the ancient who sacrificed his life during the to ensure that his people could live free of oppression, was cited as being the ideal or "perfect ruler" of the Qotaral's Sith state, a member of the strong who gave his life to protect the weak in the interest of preserving the state. Choosing sides In the months following its initial publication, the Qotaral achieved bestseller status with alacrity for its divisive content and controversial politics. Reactions to its contents varied across the board. While many Sith Lords of the prevailing conservative establishment considered its tenets tantamount to heresy and recommended that Karos be stripped of his curator status and exiled to Tund, certain more liberally minded political factions readily employed its criticisms as useful political capital, further proof that the Empire had reached the point of stagnation under traditionalists like and required a renewal of sorts. Though many took the Qotaral's harsh criticisms of Sith cultural convention for tacit support of the liberal cause, Karos was initially hesitant to express public support for Sadow. Though he sympathized with Sadow's belief that renewed external conquest would help to rally the disparate Sith factions under one banner and bring an end to the Empire's period of internal decay, Karos did not approve of Sadow's self-serving, selfish interest in making war for the purposes of claiming rulership of the Empire for himself. Furthermore, Karos privately expressed disapproval for Sadow's mixed-culture powerbase, believing that only those individuals raised according to Sith ideals and the greater Sith way could truly be considered Sith. Though this brought him into line with Kressh's traditionalist beliefs regarding a fear of cultural polution by outsiders, Karos did not share Kressh's disdain for individuals of non-Sith blood, being in large part of Human ancestry himself. Joining Sadow Though Karos admired Kressh for publicly expressing his interest in putting the good of the Sith Empire above his own personal ambitions and desires, Karos believed Kressh would merely continue to perpetuate the isolationist policies that had given rise to the Empire's stagnation in the first place. Though he was fully aware that Sadow's ultimate aim was to claim the throne of the Empire for his own selfish ends, Karos ultimately came to the conclusion that a Sadow administration represented the best possible means of bringing about the renewal of the Empire as outlined in the Qotaral. Karos believed Sadow's imperialist designs would serve as a suitable catalyst for redirecting the focus of the Sith people away from themselves and back onto the state. As the Empire expanded outwards and encountered enemies, Karos surmised that the Sith would cast aside their petty conflicts and rally beneath Sadow's banner to protect themselves and their way of life. The resultant unification would help to mend the seams in the Sith cultural fabric and help to usher in an end to the rampant individualism that had characterized previous millennia. As a result, Karos grudgingly joined himself to Sadow's burgeoning faction, ingratiating himself into its ruling hierarchy in the same manner as he had the courts of the Sith Lords during the days of his perambulations. His skills as an experienced Sith necromancer and his influence as the curator of the most prestigious library-temple in the Empire were invaluable to the movement. It was not long before he found himself serving as one of Sadow's principle advisers, second only to , presiding Sith Lord of and Sadow's chief lieutenant. In keeping with his passion for ancient titles like " ," Sadow bestowed the ancient of "Sedriss"The Fact File literally defines the word "Sedriss" as follows: "wie 'Darth' ein Titel aus der alten Sprache der Sith," basically translating to "like 'Darth' a title from the old language of the Sith." upon Karos in recognition of his prodigious Force ability and timely counsel. End of the Golden Age Funeral of Marka Ragnos The death of Jen'ari Marka Ragnos in after a century of throughout the Empire brought the clash between the followers of Sadow and Kressh to the forefront of Sith politics. As expected, Ludo Kressh laid claim to the Dark Lord's throne as Ragnos's natural successor, promising a continuation of the policies that had defined the preceding Golden Age. As acting Dark Lord, Kressh led the down from Dreshdae to in the , followed by the members of the , dignitaries from distant worlds, and a trailing group of Kissai priests, Massassi, commoners, and Grotthu slaves. Representing Arkania and the Veeshas Tuwan, Karos was among the twenty-three Sith who headed the procession to the tomb, but was not included among the twenty anointed Sith Lords who oversaw the religious internment ceremony due to being an unanointed Kissai priest. Karos witnessed the fashionably late arrival of Naga Sadow and the Sith Lord's public claim to the Sith throne. Several years of growing tension between Sadow's and Kressh's respective factions finally came to a head with the subsequent duel between Sadow and Kressh upon the steps of Ragnos's mausoleum, pitting the heads of each faction against each other in a test of strength and Force ability. With both Lords unable to best each other, the duel was only ended by the sudden appearance of the of Ragnos himself, who spoke to the Sith of the glory of the Empire and urged both claimants to not succumb to division and civil war before fading away. Inspired by Ragnos's warning, Kressh extended the hand of peace to Sadow in an effort to put the good of the Empire above his own ambition, but was rebuffed in his attempt at finding a compromise. Further conflict, however, was averted by the sudden arrival of the , a crewed by the siblings and that landed adjacent to the funeral progression in the Valley of the Dark Lords. Sadow's shenanigans Though the Daragons claimed they had stumbled in the Stygian Caldera by accident in search of new societies with which to trade, the majority of the Sith Council remained unconvinced of the innocence of their intentions. Many were fearful of the possibility that the siblings were Republic spies, portents of an incoming invasion. Though the Council voted that the Daragons be killed immediately, Sadow opposed this motion, considering them the key to an era of conquest. In a cunningly conceived "Republic rescue mission," Sadow and his followers posed as allies of the Daragons and sprung them from their prison cell on the eve of their execution, killing the Councilor with Republic blasters found aboard the Starbreaker 12 before spiriting the Humans away to safety. With the alleged invasion all but confirmed by this turn of events, Sadow easily convinced the panicked Sith Council to elect him Jen'ari on the basis of the need for a preemptive strike against the Republic. Only Kressh refused to acknowledge Sadow's status, departing with from the Council chambers in anger. Battle of Khar Delba Sadow sensed a powerful Force sensitivity in , who in the days of his youth had been a . Though he took Gav as a and trained him in isolation at the , Sadow kept in seclusion at the less populated under guard. At his new Jen'ari's request, Karos questioned Jori extensively on the subject of the Republic. Following Sadow's instructions, Karos maintained the illusion that Sadow and his faction were friendly to the Republic and interested in establishing diplomatic relations and a trade agreement. Though the depths of Sadow's deceptions and his own part in propagating them troubled Karos, he had little difficulty playing the part of interested listener. Always the academic, his interest in Jori Daragon's accounts of her life and her tales of encountering other cultures was genuine. Though their time together was brief, the Korosian and the Korribanian bonded over their mutual interests and shared stories. It was Karos's advocacy on his new friend's behalf that ultimately convinced Sadow to grant Jori a through which she could speak to her brother. As Kressh openly refused to acknowledge Sadow's successful candidacy, Sadow hatched a plan to bait his rival into attacking him unprovoked. Coordinating a clearly staged "Republic attack" on guards loyal to Kressh, Sadow oversaw the theft of the Starbreaker 12 from the Sith Citadel's hangar, leaving behind clues that pointed to his involvement. Kressh took the bait, on Khar Delba. Still posing as an ally of the Republic, Sadow urged to escape aboard the Starbreaker 12, hoping that the secretly planted aboard the ship would lead him to the Republic. With her jump to hyperspace, Sadow revealed the greater part of his fleet in orbit behind the moon of and massacred . Unopposed at last, Sadow ordered the mobilization of the Sith Empire for war, gathering an drawn from shipyards across the Stygian Caldera. Counselor's criticisms In the days that followed Sadow's military buildup over Khar Shian, Karos grew more troubled by his Jen'ari's outright refusal to acknowledge the risks of blind invasion. Karos's discussions with Jori Daragon had tacitly revealed the size and scale of the Republic, its shadowy form made tangible through the sheer number of disparate cultures and societies that formed its collective whole. The territory outside the Empire's sphere of influence was largely unknown to the isolationist Sith, and no one since the time of the Exiles knew the extent of the Republic's influence, military capabilities, or location. As such, Karos was predisposed towards treading softly with great caution, bringing him into conflict with many of Sadow's other advisors. In stark contrast to Shar Dakhan, Karos advocated against invasion and suggested instead that Empire wait for Jori to lead the Republic back to the Stygian Caldera in search of her brother. In such a scenario, rather than sallying forth into the unknown, the Sith would have the advantage of picking the battlefield and defending against outsiders on home territory. Furthermore, by allowing a Republic incursion to actually transpire, Sadow's public claims of incoming invasion previously made in his bid to secure the throne would be retroactively proven to be true, solidifying the legitimacy of his rule and painting him as a valiant defender rather than an aggressor. With the Sith people rallying beneath his banner as one to repulse the foreign invaders, Sadow could break the better part of the Republic military machine on home ground with the full might of a united Empire at his back. Emboldened by victory and faced with weakened resistance, the Empire would be in a much better position to forge ahead into the Republic's own territory in a counter-invasion. Ride for ruin However, much to Karos's chagrin, his admonitions fell upon deaf ears. Sadow and the greater part of his followers were eager for new conquests and unwilling to delay. Karos ultimately submitted to Sadow's will, albeit grudgingly. Much to his relief, the staff of the Veeshas Tuwan were not called upon to contribute much to Sadow's coalition fleet due to their civilian status, small numbers, and distance from the staging point of Khar Shian. Karos pledged three hundred Massassi veterans of the Kohortwotok Wishastuwan and three dozen volunteer s to the cause, placing Kazarkasimus in charge of the Massassi and fellow Kissai Nakantos over the sorcerers. During the buildup on Khar Shian, Shar Dakhan assigned Karos and his forces to the Forth From Perdition, a in Dakhan's personal armada under the command of Thira Mahasi. The Perdition remained in Karos's service even after the events of the , serving as his until his death. Not long after assembling his invasion fleet, Sadow was greeted by the unexpected arrival of . Though he attempted to reveal Sadow's scheming and betrayal by hologram transmission to the assembled members of the Sith Council, Kressh's admonitions fell upon deaf ears. His flagship was destroyed soon thereafter and Sadow departed the Empire in high spirits with his fleet in tow and his rival assumed dead. However, unbeknownst to Sadow, Kressh had secretly survived the encounter. With Sadow out of the way on an extended campaign of conquest, Kressh publicly revealed the Dark Lord's scheming to the greater Sith Empire and successfully laid claim to the title of Jen'ari as the true heir of Marka Ragnos. Great Hyperspace War Strategy in motion Following the route the Starbreaker 12 took during Jori Daragon's escape from Khar Delba, the Sith invasion fleet massed in orbit around , a red giant in the around which Sadow parked his . From these designated mobile field headquarters, Sadow oversaw the invasion of the Core from afar, bolstering the morale of his forces through the use of amplified and augmented by his meditation sphere. Under his direction, a Sith invasion force led by Gav Daragon moved to establish a foothold in the in the , permitting the majority of the invasion fleet under Shar Dakhan to move up the unmolested. Along the way, the Sith under Dakhan overwhelmed Republic defenses at and before attacking itself, with smaller fleets under lesser Sith Lords breaking off to pursue concurrent secondary campaigns on , , and . Battle of Coruscant On Sadow's orders, Dakhan struck hard at the capital of the Republic, personally overseeing the deployment of thousands of Massassi warriors and Sith war beasts to the Coruscant . Dropping to the war-torn planet surface aboard the Perdition's , Karos and his forces were assigned to the defense of the Sith while the bulk of the Sith army advanced towards the under Dakhan's command. Though Karos suspected his rival on Sadow's council had stationed him far from the action as a slight, Karos nonetheless played the part Dakhan had set before him. He organized the Kohortwotok Wishastuwan under Kazarkasimus into a defensive cordon, deploying his Sith sorcerers under Nakantos as mobile Forceful artillery charged with calling down such incantations of as and upon the beleaguered and defenders. However, unbeknownst many on both sides of the conflict, the Sith invasion army's composition and numbers were not what they seemed. From his meditation sphere many lightyears away, Sadow had secretly augmented the size and scale of Dakhan's invasion force a thousandfold with in an effort to demoralize the Republic defenders and inspire the Sith. The unexpected betrayal of Gav Daragon, recently repented of his tenure as Sadow's apprentice and determined to redeem himself for his people, broke Sadow's concentration and shattered the illusion of invincibility with which Dakhan had clutched at victory. Witnessing the mass disappearance of the greater part of their army, the Sith, seemingly balanced upon the cusp of victory, were readily routed, driven in full retreat back to the landing zone by the renewed assault of the Jedi and the Republic Army. Despite the fury of the Republic counterattack, Karos and the Kohortwotok Wishastuwan held their ground, buying time for the surviving remnants of the Sith army to reembark aboard drop ships at the landing zone. As Dakhan had been in the vanguard of the initial assault, he and his beleaguered bodyguard unit were among the last to arrive near Karos's defensive cordon and soon found themselves cut off from the main force. Assisted by Kazarkasimus and a dozen Massassi, Karos fought through to Dakhan's position and managed to drag the Sith Lord to the safety of the cordon, briefly engaging a Glymphid Jedi Master in single combat. With most of the Sith evacuated, Karos applied his mastery of necromancy to the invocation of Tsaiwinokka Hoyakut, allowing the Kohortwotok Wishastuwan time to withdraw to the Perdition. Confronted by the undead, the Republic advance was slowed long enough for Karos and his subordinates to escape, though Nakantos fell protecting Karos from blaster bolts during the ritual's invocation. Battles of Korriban Their morale in tatters, the surviving remnants of the Sith invasion fleet withdrew in disgrace to Primus Goluud, harried and pursued by a task force dispatched from and a large Korosian fleet led by . Imploding the Primus Goluud red giant as a distraction, Sadow retreated in haste back down the , arriving at Korriban only to find himself face-to-face with the personal armada of the newly crowned Jen'ari Ludo Kressh. In the , Sadow finally brought an end to his rival, though at a great cost to the collective Sith forces of both sides. The full extent of Daragon's betrayal of his master became evident with the sudden arrival of a joint Republic-Korosian task force armed with the data Daragon had provided Teta prior to his death in the Primus Goluud . In the resultant , the remaining Sith suffered heavy casualties and Sadow fled in disgrace into exile on , leaving the Empire to its inevitable demise. The Republic coalition fleet was only successfully driven off by desperate suicide runs ordered by acting Jen'ari Shar Dakhan, bringing an end to the Great Hyperspace War and the Sith Empire alike. Aftermath With the war over and his duty to the Empire fulfilled, Karos departed the Stygian Caldera with alacrity, desiring to have no part in the chaos engulfing the Sith Worlds and longing for the quiet solitude of the Veeshas Tuwan's s. Though the Perdition sustained heavy damage during both battles of Korriban, the ship managed to limp back to Arkania in one piece. Karos reassumed control of the library-temple from Kasidz in the days that followed and pondered the future of the Empire in the light of recent events. Though the colony on Arkania was small and far from the central worlds of the Sith, Karos predicted that Gav Daragon had transmitted enough astrogation data on Sith settlements to the Republic to compromise and reveal the location of the Veeshas Tuwan. Unable to shake his proverbial bad feeling, Karos placed the library-temple on a high , fully mobilizing its remaining Massassi garrison under Kazarkasimus and ordering the removal of its display cases of priceless artifacts to safer chambers deeper in the complex. Sith genocide Fall of the Sith Empire The loss of two Dark Lords in quick succession and the shame of defeat in the Great Hyperspace War plunged the Sith Empire into chaos in the days immediately following the second battle of Korriban. Mass ritual suicides and intermittent civil conflict characterized the brief reign of acting Dark Lord Shar Dakhan. As the Republic rebounded from losses suffered during the Sith blitzkrieg, many residents of worlds devastated by the Sith began calling for blood and vengeance. In an effort to diminish any vestigial threat posed by the Sith Empire to the safety of the Republic, the presiding of the Republic, , authorized a joint Jedi-Republic counter-invasion of the Stygian Caldera with the backing of the Senate. This counter-invasion, subsequently known as the , was aimed at achieving the assured destruction of the Empire through the systematic extermination of the Sith species. Though some members of the Jedi Order opposed the of the Sith and the wanton destruction of their cultural heritage, the Order oversaw the campaign and supervised the iconoclastic destruction of most Sith artifacts, writings, and monuments by s in an effort to eradicate any vestigial remnant of the Sith from the greater galaxy. Rise of the Sith Protectors The news of the Republic counter-invasion came many weeks late to the Veeshas Tuwan courtesy of Sith refugees seeking asylum on Arkania. Learning the full extent of the speciecide and the Empire's inability to stand against the resurgent Republic, Karos and his constituents debated their course of action. Kasidz advocated for taking advantage of Arkania's remote location in the interest of preserving some semblance of the Empire's cultural heritage in the hallowed halls of the Veeshas Tuwan, leaving the Empire to its unfortunate but inevitable fate. Karos, however, saw an opportunity to put the sacred principles of the Qotaral into action. In a emotional public address to the entire research base population of the Veeshas Tuwan, Karos called upon his fellow Sith to join him and ride to the Empire's aid in defense of the weak. He outlined a plan of action that called for the evacuation of refugees from the main population centers of the Stygian Caldera to distant colonies unknown to the Republic like , , , and . In addition to half of the Kohortwotok Wishastuwan's remaining strength, Karos was joined by a sizable percentage of the library-temple's faculty and staff, most of whom were sorcerers and alchemists originally from worlds suffering under Republic occupation. Taking the name "Tsistaralkut" meaning "Sith Protectors," this , numbering under a thousand strong, departed Arkania for the Sith Worlds aboard the Forth From Perdition, leaving the Veeshas Tuwan in the care of Kasidz and a small token force. Over the next few months, the Tsistaralkut travelled across the Stygian Caldera, ferrying refugees aboard the Perdition to safe havens and fighting losing battles to buy time for others to escape. Their numbers grew as other Sith s joined the cause, and though their victories were scant and Pyrric in nature, the Tsistaralkut successfully saved tens of thousands of Sith from speciecide from Upekzar to Korriban. Sack of the Veeshas Tuwan Personality and traits Personality }} In terms of Force alignment, Karos was often described as a " ." Though his personal philosophy of brought him more into line with "Gray Sith" sects like the rather than mainline denominations, he exhibited certain patently traits on account of his upbringing in the . Though he took issue with the selfish endemic to Sith teachings of the late Empire era, Karos was a strong proponent of the Sith brand of . He believed that the varying degrees of Force sensitivity and raw power manifested in individuals were the outward expressions of the will of the Force, the hallmarks of a hierarchy that separated the weak from the strong. As the strong wielded their power only by the will of the Force, Karos believed the strong were tacitly empowered by the Force to oversee and govern the weak. These thus had a right to rule and act as seen fit as their authority was ultimately derived from the Force. As a self-proclaimed member of the strong by virtue of his raw talent in the Force, Karos was often careless in the use and abuse of his prodigious power, justifying the means taken in pursuit of a desirable end to be of little ultimate consequence. Like most his caste, Karos manifested the distinctly Kissai characteristics of loyalty and dependability, traits intentionally cultivated in the selective breeding of the Kissai caste over millennia by the and s. Karos's particularly strong sense of loyalty to the Sith species ultimately compelled him to willingly sacrifice his life during the to secure a future for his people. However, following his post-mortem manifestation as a powerful , his desire to protect the vestigial remnants of the Sith, coupled with his lack of inhibitions about the abuse of his power, often led him to ceaselessly pursue vengeance against those he deemed responsible for bringing harm to the Sith species. Physical appearance Powers and abilities Linguistic skills extract from the writings of Karos summarizing the central tenet of Dzwolutwokun"Those born of the Force exist as two, light and dark—the Force exists as only one. Those who crave truth must cast off the lie of duality."}} Though a proper polyglot by the end of his life, Karos was primarily a speaker of the so-called "Sithic" family of languages widely spoken during the . As a member of the priest caste born on the homeworld of the , Karos possessed a native fluency in the due to its extensive use among of the Temple of Typhojem in rituals of . As he often interacted with guards and warriors pledged in service to the Kissai caste, he also possessed a professional fluency in the . Karos encountered during his time spent in study on , cultivating a conversational ability in the offshoot of the Sith language spoken exclusively by the in residence on the planet. Though he favored the use of the Sithic languages in his personal and professional lives, he was eventually forced to cultivate some conversational ability in upon leaving to study aboard in the greater . The version of Galactic Basic commonly spoken in the Empire was a somewhat antiquated version of the language originally brought to the by the in the aftermath of the . As he was not a native speaker of the language, Karos often faced difficulty in pronouncing some Basic words without a distinctive Sith accent, a fact largely attributed to the presence of certain s in Basic lacking equivalents in the phonetic palette of the Sith language. Relationships Shar Dakhan Karos and , governing of , shared an often vitriolic relationship during their respective tenures as advisors to . Though Dakhan was technically of a higher rank due to being an anointed Sith Lord, Karos made no effort to disguise his disdain for his superior. While Karos openly criticized Dakhan for being a warmonger and thoughtless brute, Dakhan for his part considered Karos an overcautious and cowardly academic with no talent in warfare or skill in strategy. However, following the in which Karos rescued Dakhan from certain death at the hands of the , the two Sith agreed to bury the hatchet. They turned their focus on preserving the Sith Empire as best as they could, given their mutual acknowledgement of Sadow's ham-handed handling of the war effort. Though their relationship was still strained due to their different personalities, they managed to achieve some degree of amiability during the last days of the Empire, with Karos publicly supporting Dakhan in the latter's brief tenure as acting and Dakhan gifting his signet ring to Karos as a sign of gratitude for Karos's rescue attempt. Titles and epithets Titles * Chief Curator, :: Karos served as the overseeing curator of the on during the last decades of the . In this capacity, Karos oversaw the preservation and protection of the library's collection of s and personally commanded the Kohortwotok Wishastuwan. * Sedriss, :: Karos was afforded the use of the ancient Sâdris by upon entering into the 's service as a member of his advisory council. This title denoted a Sith of prodigious power ranked higher than priest but lower than anointed . Epithets * Dwomûshhoyakut :: Karos earned the Dwomûshhoyakut meaning "summoner of the dead" for his prodigious skill in and the casting of the invocation. He specifically earned this epithet during his tenure in study at the Veeshas Tuwan as a and staff member. * Tsistaral :: Karos merited the epithet Tsistaral meaning "Sith Protector" for his actions in defense of the the population of the during the . He shared this title with the Tsistaralkut, the he formed to resist the joint Jedi-Republic invasion of the . * Woqoritwai :: Karos earned the epithet Woqoritwai meaning "Deathless One" in the centuries after his physical death at the conclusion of the Sith genocide. Persisting as a for millennia, Karos continued to manifest among the vestigial Sith-blooded populations of the Sith Worlds both in spirit form and physically in . Equipment Behind the scenes The character of Karos was in large part inspired by Firedance's Sith philosopher Karros and the varied members of Sakaros' namesake family of Sith Purebloods. The author exploited the convenient orthographic similarities between "Karros" and "Sa''karos''" in the development of the character's name, considering it a fitting tribute to both fanon continuities and their respective authors. The character, originally provided the name "Dzunyâsh" in reference to the Wookieepedia of linguist , was initially developed as an experiment in the writing of a believable, EU lore-consistent immortal Force user similar to the members of the . However, the concept gradually developed outward into more abstract philosophical waters after the author concurrently encountered unconventional Force-using factions like the and the in EU lore and fanon characters like those included above. Additional sources of inspiration for Karos's personality came from the characters of the from the franchise, from the (as well as portrayal of the character in the film ), and the film portrayal of the King of the Dead from . The character's self-sacrificial death to buy time for the to escape the during the was inspired by the events of the and the of . Appearances * * Notes and references " " "Bloodlust" on ''Star Wars'' Fanon " " " " " " on " " on " " on " "—'' '' —Codex Entry: "Galactic History 26: Naga Sadow's Deceptions" —Codex Entry: "The Voice of the Emperor (Warrior)" }} Category:Articles by Sebolto